Biomass

Biomass is organic material that comes from plants and animals, and it is a
renewable source of energy.
Biomass contains stored energy from the sun. Plants absorb the sun's energy in a
process called photosynthesis. When biomass is burned, the chemical energy in
biomass is released as heat. Biomass can be burned directly or converted to liquid
biofuels or biogas that can be burned as fuels.
Examples of biomass and their uses for energy:
 Wood and wood processing wastes—burned to heat buildings, to produce
process heat in industry, and to generate electricity
 Agricultural crops and waste materials—burned as a fuel or converted to
liquid biofuels
 Food, yard, and wood waste in garbage—burned to generate electricity in
power plants or converted to biogas in landfills
 Animal manure and human sewage—converted to biogas, which can be
burned as a fuel

Types of Biomass
Biomass is highly diverse in nature and classified on the basis of site of origin, as
follows:
a. Field and plantation biomass
b. Industrial biomass
c. Forest biomass
d. Urban waste biomass
e. Aquatic biomass
Why Biomass energy?
 Biomass is an attractive energy source for a number of reasons:
 Biomass is a renewable energy source generated through natural processes
and as a byproduct of human activity.
 It is also more evenly distributed over the earth's surface than fossil fuel
energy sources, and may be harnessed using more cost effective
technologies.
 It provides us the opportunity to be more energy self-sufficient and helps to
reduce climate change.
 It helps farmers, ranchers and foresters better manage waste material,
providing rural job opportunities and stimulating new economic
opportunities.

Biomass to Energy Pathways:

Biomass is a complex class of feed stocks with significant energy potential to
apply different technologies for energy recovery. Typically technologies for
biomass energy are broadly classified on the basis of principles of thermo
chemistry as combustion, gasification, pyrolysis and biochemistry as anaerobic
digestion, fermentation and trans-esterification. Each technology has its uniqueness
to produce a major calorific end product and a mixture of by-products. Choice of a
processing method often depends on nature and origin of feed stocks, their physio-
chemical state and application spectrum of fuel products derived from it.
The flow chart below comprehensively highlights the major biomass conversion
technologies, their range of compatible feed stocks and major fuel products for
power, heat and transport utilizations.
 A brief description of the technologies for energy generation from biomass is
as follows:

Combustion
In this process, biomass is directly burned in presence of excess air (oxygen) at high
temperatures (about 800°C), liberating heat energy, inert gases, and ash. Combustion
 results in transfer of 65%–80% of heat content of the organic matter to hot air, steam,
and hot water. The steam generated, in turn, can be used in steam turbines to generate
power.

Transesterification
The traditional method to produce biodiesel from biomass is through a chemical
reaction called transesterification. Under this method, oil is extracted from the
biomass and it is processed using the transesterification reaction to give biodiesel as
the end-product.

Alcoholic Fermentation
The process of conversion of biomass to biofuels involves three basic steps:

1. Converting biomass to sugar or other fermentation feedstock

2. Fermenting these biomass-derived feedstocks using microorganisms for

fermentation.

3. Processing the fermentation product to produce fuel-grade ethanol and other fuels.

Anaerobic Digestion
In the absence of air, organic matter such as animal manures, organic wastes and
green energy crops (e.g. grass) can be converted by bacteria-induced fermentation
into biogas (a 40%-75% methane-rich gas with CO2 and a small amount of hydrogen
sulphide and ammonia). The biogas can be used either for cooking/heating
applications, or for generating motive power or electricity through dual-fuel or gas
engines, low-pressure gas turbines, or steam turbines.

Pyrolysis
Pyrolysis is a process of chemical decomposition of organic matter brought about
by heat. In this process, the organic material is heated in absence of air until the
molecules thermally break down to become a gas comprising smaller molecules
(known collectively as syngas).

The two main methods of pyrolysis are “fast” pyrolysis and “slow” pyrolysis. Fast
pyrolysis yields 60% bio-oil, 20% biochar, and 20% syngas, and can be done in
seconds. Slow pyrolysis can be optimized to produce substantially more char (~50%)
along with organic gases, but takes on the order of hours to complete.

Gasification
In this process, biomass reacts with air under extreme temperatures and results in
production of producer gas, to produce power (or) react with pure oxygen to produce
synthesis gas for fuel production. The combustible gas, known as producer gas, has
a calorific value of 4.5 - 5.0 MJ/cubic meter. A wide range of biomass in the form
of wood or agro residue can be used for gasification.

Biomass Energy in India

 India produces about 450-500 million tonnes of biomass per year. Biomass
provides 32% of all the primary energy use in the country at present.
 EAI estimates that the potential in the short term for power from biomass in
India varies from about 18,000 MW, when the scope of biomass is as
traditionally defined, to a high of about 50,000 MW if one were to expand
the scope of definition of biomass.
 The current share of biofuels in total fuel consumption is extremely low and
is confined mainly to 5% blending of ethanol in gasoline, which the
government has made mandatory in 10 states.
 Currently, biodiesel is not sold on the Indian fuel market, but the
government plans to meet 20% of the country’s diesel requirements by 2020
using biodiesel.
 Plants like Jatropha curcas, Neem, Mahua and other wild plants are
identified as the potential sources for biodiesel production in India.
 There are about 63 million ha waste land in the country, out of which about
40 million ha area can be developed by undertaking plantations of Jatropha.
India uses several incentive schemes to induce villagers to rehabilitate waste
lands through the cultivation of Jatropha.